Quite a fine interview with Ian McEwan in TNR linked below (hat tip to aldaily).  I liked this quote, which neatly summarizes his spirit of  sceptical humanism:

“One passes the usual milestones in life: You have children, you find that whether you like it or not, you have a huge investment in the human project somehow succeeding. You become maybe a little more tolerant as you get older. Pessimism begins to feel something like a badge that you perhaps do not wear so easily. There is something delicious and reckless about the pessimism of being 21. And when you get older you feel maybe a little more delicate and hope that things will flourish. You don’t want to take a stick to it.”

http://tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=2cee28d1-869d-447a-8e83-4e046f5ad6df